Monday, July 28, 2008

Yesterday morning we woke up without much to do and decided to take Blackfork Robert's advice and go to the National Matches (America's "World Series of the Shooting Sports") at Camp Perry. We looked on Google maps and found that it's much closer than we imagined - so we decided to carpe our diem and hit the road. It was a gorgeous clear day, perfect for a short roadtrip along the Lake Erie shore.

We headed west on the freeway and arrived in less than 2 hours, greeted by the crack of gunfire and two friendly MPs. We found a parking spot and went exploring. Between Commercial Row, the base itself, and 50 cent hot dogs, there was plenty to keep us entertained. (all photos can be enlarged, click twice)

Mr. Blackfork himself is my closest neighbor & landlord, but I NEVER get to see any pictures of all the places he goes. I hear stories & I watch videos of the matches, but it's nice to see regular pictures - cryogenics indeed!

EBR is good stuff maynard! Get the parts and a good kit-source and build your own lower, it's easy - buy the upper as a built-unit. It'll learn you a lot about gubs.I had a housemate army-mechanic who used to work on those 'copters, at the time (early '80s) they were the baddest-baddass of 'em all.

There are several matches geared towards newbies to High Power competition. The CMP runs the M-1 Garand Match, M-1 Carbine match and the 1903 Springfield Match. All you'd need is one of those rifles, or any military bolt gun for the Springfield match, and you can participate.

An even easier way to try out High Power shooting and learn a bit more would be to attend the Small Arms Firing School during the National Matches. The school gives you half a day of classroom instruction, some live fire instruction, and then you participate in a short match firing a govt issue M-16A2 at 200 and 300 yards.

The really nice thing about the SAFS and M-16 Match is that all the rifle and ammo are provided! And it's only about $40 for the match.

Seriously, if you are only two hours away, you should look into attending the SAFS Rifle next year. They also do a Small Arms Firing School for Pistol which is geared towards Bullseye compeition, if that is more your style. In that class you'd use match conditioned M9 Berretta 9mm's.

Go to www.odcmp.com for more info on the matches. I've attend SAFS rifle twice and highly recommend it. SAFS pistol is on my list for hopefully next year.